The Institute for Government’s Commission on the Centre of Government published its final report yesterday – Power with Purpose. The launch event was filled with heavyweight thinkers with unparalleled experience of government, including two ex-Prime Ministers, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown and Sir John Major, and a panel including Lord Gus O’Donnell and Baroness Louise Casey - plus a lot of very well-tailored folks in the audience, who looked no strangers to the centre.
The report argues that a new government should set out and work to a strategic plan which translates electoral ambitions into measurable outcomes - learning from research, business and international examples to create a centre that works for the 21st century.
I’d welcome this approach. A great way to create a north star for the people running the country - and a transparent way for the public to see everyday decisions guided by big strategic aims.
The ex-PMs and panel gave their real-life recollections on what making decisions at the centre is really like, requiring a constant balance of efficiency, legitimacy and realpolitik.
I was just starting to get worried, as nobody was mentioning being accountable to anything outside the centre. Louise Casey, though, opened things up. She said it was important to remember the things that matter to people; cost of living, health, housing.
“The dissonance between the centre and people’s lives is too great… the centre isn’t just there for the man or woman at the top”.
I applaud this greater ambition for the centre.
We have an opportunity now. The report calls for reform under the next government; we can make the centre porous to public judgement, as well as to wider expertise, to benefit from diverse perspectives.
The public could be structurally involved, in imaginative ways, in developing the government’s strategy and scrutinising how it is delivered. Involve will continue to develop ways to include public voices in scrutiny and monitoring, in visioning and strategy development.
This doesn’t mean complete transparency and constant scrutiny of every decision - decision makers need a space to operate, and the public elect representatives to do this job.
But we need to build a way to ensure that decision makers keep public front of mind. We need a “remember you are mortal” feedback loop for the powerful, calling their attention out of Whitehall, back to the public, between elections – to keep daily decision making on the strategic track.
Image credit Institute for Government